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Budget compromise bills clear hurdle in Louisiana House

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A bipartisan budget compromise in the Louisiana House cleared a procedural hurdle Monday, with a committee sending a raft of bills that could be used to raise new revenue to the full chamber. But the details of the compromise on the spending plan are still unclear and lawmakers said they have not yet agreed on a final version of the deal.
(NOLA.com | Times-Picayune archive)

A bipartisan budget compromise in the Louisiana House cleared a procedural hurdle Monday, with a committee sending a raft of bills that could be used to raise new revenue to the full chamber. But the details of the compromise on the spending plan are still unclear and lawmakers said they have not yet agreed on a final version of the deal.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's
administration has opposed the proposal, as have the Louisiana
Republican Party, the Tea Party and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. All say the elimination or restriction of tax exemptions amounts to tax increases, although supporters of the negotiations have framed them as a reduction in
the amount the state spends in subsidies to specific businesses.

In technical terms, the House Ways and Means Committee moved more than a half-dozen bills to the House floor without actually giving them their stamp of approval. But committee Chairman Rep. Joel Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, made it clear that those measures are simply instruments that will be used as part of the compromise and that those involved in the discussions plan to amend them, possibly dramatically changing their purpose, when they came up for a vote.

While the details of the plan are still under wraps, the bills taken up by the committee Monday give a sense of what the discussions likely entail. The bills cover a wide range of topics including severance taxes and the state's Enterprise Zone program. In addition, several measures that would impose across-the-board reductions in state tax incentives were moved through the committee, including proposals that would more severely restrict those programs when the state is facing a budget deficit.

Robideaux said he expects a final proposal will be presented to the public by late Monday or Tuesday (May 7), with the expectation the bills will be debated Friday as part of the overall discussion of the state's $24.7 billion budget.

Republicans known as the fiscal hawks have been negotiating with Democrats and the Legislative Black Caucus for weeks on a deal that would strip one-time money from the state budget. The plan is expected to fill the $490 million gap that would leave with a mix of budget cuts and reductions in tax breaks.

"We're out of the loop, we haven't been informed as to why this bill is being moved out of committee," Barfield said, referring to a measure crafted by the administration as part of the original tax plan.

"You said you feel out of the loop. Now you know how we feel about just about everything," Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Marksville, said.